


Melting Away

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: "Sad" Ending, Deathfic, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt With Some Post-Death Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-05 16:58:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Qui-Gon and his padawan Obi-Wan were investigating ancient ruins, and realized too late it was a quarantine system. Qui-Gon reaches the exit fast enough. Obi-Wan does not.





	Melting Away

**Author's Note:**

> Specific Warning: Vague mist that will kill and turn the corpse into fluid. Qui-Gon is not actually able to see it happen, so it's not particularly graphic.
> 
> Courtesy Warning for Qui-Gon Fans: None needed! I wrote him as a loving, kind person this time. He has a bit of a break from being Easy Added Angst.

Qui-Gon put on one last burst of speed, the Force shrieking in his ears to _run_ like he never had in his life before.

He left the open room, into one of the decontamination hallways, and ducked under the door just as it was closing.

No sooner had the seal hissed than the terrifying green tendrils hit the round window set into the door. The warping of the light waves and molecules of the air looked almost like flames of poison.

Dragging in ragged gasps of air, Qui-Gon hurried through the decontamination process and then around to the chamber his padawan had aimed for.

The filtration systems were silent.

Heart leaping into his throat, Qui-Gon raced through and reached the sealed door.

Obi-Wan stood on the other side, face shocked and knowing.

“ _No,_ ” Qui-Gon hissed, pressing his hand against the saber-resistant metal. 

“I'm sorry.” Obi-Wan sounded so disappointed with himself, and his voice muffled by the door. “I didn't run fast enough.”

Qui-Gon had felt Obi-Wan's terror along with his own in that last sprint.  _You ran as fast as you could._

If they had been able to see one another for that last stretch...

_I wouldn't have gone through without him._

Qui-Gon's throat closed up.

“Don't open it,” Obi-Wan murmured, nearly turning his head to look behind him, and then visibly choosing  _not_ to.

Qui-Gon couldn't open it even if he  _needed_ to. The ancient systems would not budge any more than they would budge on one-being-per-decon-area.

And if the seal was breached within the next fifty years, while the warping was still potent...

It would wipe out all life on this planet. All of the precious lives above who had  _no idea_ that  _this_ was the cataclysm that had destroyed the now-extinct species that had been here long before the colony ships arrived.

They came here full of hope, wanting to create something new and beautiful.

“How long do I have?” Obi-Wan asked, voice just a bit unsteady.

Qui-Gon's eyes burned. “Ten minutes at most.”

“Well.” Obi-Wan managed a wan smile. “At least it won't be long.”

Qui-Gon could see green flares in Obi-Wan's eyes, and the sickly hue to his skin.  _It's already beginning to undo him._

“I'm so sorry, my Padawan.”

The twenty-two-year-old pressed an impulsive hand to the window. “Master.”

For long moments silence stretched painful around them.

Obi-Wan choked out a laugh. “I feel like there are things that I need to say, and need to hear, but I can't  _think_ of any of them.”

“I can.” Qui-Gon felt a tear slip down his cheek by his nose. “I am in awe of how bravely you are facing death, my Obi-Wan.”

The other blushed and looked down, unable to believe the words.

“You are holding on to your dignity even now, and it is above and beyond anything that's ever been asked of you, but here you stand. Because that is the man you are, and the Jedi you are.”

Startled, watery, hopeful eyes lifted to his. “You really feel that way?”  
“I do. And I am so proud that you called me your master for the time we had. Thank you, for being  _exactly_ who you are.”

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head against the window, trying to stay upright.

Qui-Gon could sense the other's dizziness, the bone-deep ache of every cell in his body unraveling.

“You're... truly proud of me?” Obi-Wan whispered.

Qui-Gon's heart broke. “Yes, my precious Padawan. So very grateful to have had you in my life.”

Blood dribbled from Obi-Wan's parted lips as he tried to breathe.

For a long moment neither spoke as Obi-Wan clenched his eyelids shut and focused his energy into staying on his feet.

“Don't close yourself off again, when I'm gone. Let— let your friends help this time. Please. Don't make me worry about you, here at the end.”

Qui-Gon's voice sounded destroyed as he choked, “I promise.”

“And don't think of me as a corpse behind this door. You know there won't be that much left. Just... terribly dangerous goo. Have whatever ceremony you need for me, but don't have it here. Please. Have it in the gardens at home. I— like to think of you visiting me  _there._ I won't be here, Master. I'll be  _there._ ”

“Alright,” was all Qui-Gon could manage.

“I cannot— stand—”

“I'm right here,” Qui-Gon promised.

Obi-Wan managed a nod before his legs gave out and dropped him down.

Qui-Gon tried to see him through the window, but Obi-Wan lay too close to the door.

So instead, Qui-Gon sat down on the floor, leaning against the door, knowing Obi-Wan lay just on the other side.

He tried to hold strong for his brave, beautiful-souled apprentice, but sobs wracked his form.

There was pain now, in the Force, terrible pain.

Qui-Gon reached out to him through their bond, trying to let him know he was not alone.

A clumsy, faint return caress—

One last shudder of agony—

And then the golden strands that together had been Obi-Wan Kenobi's mind and heart, unwound, fading in all directions into the Cosmic Force Obi-Wan had always heard so well.

It welcomed him, and for a moment Qui-Gon glimpsed indescribable beauty...

And then Obi-Wan was no longer an individual, but a memory.

* * *

_They placed a holo of him in the gardens he loved so much, and sometimes Qui-Gon swore he could hear a familiar chuckle when the wind rustled in the trees._

_And days far in the future, the heart-sore might seek that place, without knowing who the young man was in the holo statue, or why it had been placed_ there,  _knowing only that resting in this place left them with a calm sense of hope in their darkest hours._

_Qui-Gon never found out, for by that time, he had long since joined with the Force, his essence adding to Obi-Wan's to make the sanctuary of trees and grass into something hallowed and Force-touched._

_And while_ happiness  _required awareness of self in order to experience..._

_What the two long parted and dearly reunited rested in could hardly be called anything else._


End file.
